Is It Wrong to Be Optimistic about the Environment?

Is It Wrong to Be Optimistic about the Environment?

Article excerpt

A public squabble has broken out over a new book, and the result
could be a much-needed shaking up of assumptions, attitudes, and
prejudices on the environment.

"A Moment on the Earth: The Coming Age of Environmental
Optimism," by Gregg Easterbrook, an accomplished magazine writer,
covers everything from endangered species to toxic waste and many
other issues. And at 743 pages it's a real door-stopper.

But it's also aimed at the general public and by extension
government policymakers, which is why professional
environmentalists are so upset with it. They are challenging the
author in newsletters, press releases, computer forums, and radio
debates.

Easterbrook's assertion is that, far from teetering on the brink
of ecological disaster, "the Western world today is on the verge of
the greatest ecological renewal that humankind has known."

Among the premises he sums up as "ecorealism" are: "That in the
Western world pollution will end within our lifetimes.... That most
feared environmental catastrophes, such as runaway global warming,
are almost certain to be avoided.... That humankind, even a growing
human population of many billions, can take a constructive place in
the natural order."

William Reilly, Environmental Protection Agency administrator in
the Bush administration, calls Easterbrook's work "the most
influential book since {Rachel Carson's} 'Silent Spring'."
Environmental naysayers say it confirms their argument that most
environmentalists are Chicken Littles.

But other experts have probed "A Moment on the Earth" and found
it full of holes. Not only that, they say it is dangerous because
it lulls people into a false sense that everything is OK.

Leading the criticism is the Environmental Defense Fund, a
research and advocacy group that stresses science as the basis of
its work. In a lengthy analysis of the book, EDF staff scientists
(with the help of some academic experts) pick it apart page by
page, concluding that it is "replete with errors and
misinterpretations of the scientific evidence. …